Vol 1 Issue No.1
" -- so y'see, I pantsed him! " -- Shay to Nuna " This is a very bad plan. " -- Hyperlight Appearing in "A Very Bad Plan" Featured Characters: * Painkiller (Shay) * Beast (Nuna Pondelik) * ? (Erem Orbu) * Vessel (David Liu) * Hyperlight (Maya Rai) Antagonists: * The Red Menace (?) Other Characters: * Unnamed taco cart vendor * Unnamed bank clerk * Ms. Peregrine * Mr. Sanchez, the P.E. teacher * Paul, a fellow student * Unnamed creature related to Ra * Scott, the Hall monitor * The Ladykiller (?) * Axis * Doctor Xenobrain Locations: * Halcyon City ** Halcyon City Square ** Halcyon High Synopsis of "A Very Bad Plan" The story starts on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Halcyon city square. The average hustle and bustle of the crossroads provides a setting for the teens to unwittingly gather as they run errands, attend school functions, or just hang out. That all comes to a sudden stop as the city square explodes from its center. The team ready themselves for a fight, and confront the smoking crater. Stepping out is a hulking woman with red hair, bound in hand restraints, and a mask that keeps her from speaking. After a moment of surprise, she attacks, and the fight is on. Through a tough melee the group prevail as Vessel is overloading by the sheer kinetic force generated from her hits, restrained as she is. Vessel detonates, momentarily knocking the woman unconscious, and reducing the square to a pile of rubble. As the team try to question the quickly recovering woman who fell from the sky, finding she only speaks in Russian, police helicopters appear in the sky and sirens sound. The team make a quick retreat as authority appear to apprehend the threat. The following day, Nuna, David, Maya, and Shay come to school as normal. During first period P.E. they head out for their laps just as Erem is sneaking into the school. The other students are abuzz about word of the fight from yesterday. The teens shrug off the commentary about their alter-egos, good or bad. Erem heads into the school cafeteria to take some breakfast leftovers, but is stopped and offered a proposition by a mysterious figure sitting in the utility closet. An animalistic humanoid seemingly affiliated with Ra offers reassurance that skill and satisfaction are well worth striving for alone, but contrarily offers to help train Erem if they come to the longest pier at month's end. Erem continues to wander around the school, gliding around unimpeded by the nature of their ethereal beauty, partaking in leftover egg muffins and contemplating the mysterious offer. After school, David makes his pizza rounds, delivering a large order of four pies to a particularly run-down housing complex outside his usual routes. The caller was Hannah Grift, editor and owner of the Super Spectator blog. She beckoned David into her trashy apartment, saying she hadn't slept since the attack the other day, and offering her own thoughts on the "Red Menace" as a possible Russian spy or weapon. Meanwhile, Shay was scoping out a high-class neighborhood for an old contact, The Ladykiller, whose specialty was the seduction of rich, older women. Before she could speak to him, Erem suddenly interrupted to ask Shay for advice for living without a home. They both went to talk with the Ladykiller, and Shay had enough clout with him to get intel on "The Lock-up." A high-security prison for super-criminals. Afterwards, The Ladykiller gave a farewell to "Shenanigans" and they parted ways. Later that night, the team hashed together a plan over their comm network. Painkiller was intent on getting into the Lock-up and busting the red-haired woman out for further questioning. Vessel was uncertain, as he's having band practice the next day, but Erem reassured him that his practical, quick thinking and actions would be invaluable for this plan. Maya put together a Russian translator and a tracking device she hands over to Shay. The team make their excuses and escapes to gather that Tuesday night to enact their plan. The bait, Painkiller, is tasked with getting herself thrown in the lock-up. She feeds off of Erem's sadness to turn invisible, and takes a joyride around the construction site built around the ruined city square. After berating the workers and guards, she reveals herself to be none other than "Shenanigans." After a call, a truck arrives to take her away to a compound outside of Halcyon City. "Shenanigans" is brought to the Lock-up; a walled compound in the midst of forested hills, tucked away beyond view of average civilians. As the truck crosses the threshold, the rest of the team formulate their rescue plan. The Infiltration team of Vessel and Hyperlight is set to sneak inside the main building, while the Recovery team of Erem and Beast wait on stand-by to help extract everyone from the compound. Maya remains distrusting of the plan, to which Erem tries to convince her of the mission's potential value for good. Maya back off, simply stating that she still doesn't like the plan, but will go along with it. She slugs Vessel to transfer some kinetic energy, and they both leap over the outer wall. Moving along the edge of the complex, the Infiltration team make their way around a hedge maze to a one-way back door. Hyperlight proceeds to hack it open, but fears the worst will come of it. Outside the walls, the Recovery team notice that patrols are veering further towards the treeline. Beast gives Erem a claw, and drags them up to a vantage within the canopy. The guards give a check of the area and report back through their comms. With heightened senses, the Beast catches a conversation between the guard and a superior urging for an increase in security to ensure that Doctor Killjoy doesn't end up staging a prison break with Shenanigans. After another look-over, the guards move past. Inside, Painkiller is dragged through the building past a menagerie of villains, including the cells of Axis, Doctor Xenobrain, and Miss Metal. She's taken to her own named cell, and left for a later time. There, she starts to hear a humming coming from the cell next door. Retelling of The Team vs "The Red Menace" The story starts on Shay and Nuna walking and talking during an average day in downtown Halcyon City. They briefly bump into a man walking through the crowd, before he tells them to "watch where you're going," and promptly walks off. Shay reveals that she pick-pocketed the man of his wallet, seeing his dour attitude as reason enough to assume he was probably going to waste the money on something immoral like "dog-fighting" anyway. She proceeds to pay for a meal of tacos from a food cart for Nuna's meal. Nuna sits down at the nearest bench and digs into the first two, but as she picks up the third, a sudden rumbling tremor sends it splattering over the pavement. Meanwhile . . . Erem stands at the desk of a bank clerk, envelope in hand for a transaction from his caretaker. Erem looks around the office for a moment, before departing without continuing the transaction, claiming to "have somewhere else o be." As the stretch on the sidewalk, they look over the bustling square. Seeing a procession of high school band students led by a teacher heading back to the buses after a field trip. David, who had just been on a field trip to an African drum builder, is talking with his classmates when he locks eyes with Erem from across the square. On a whim, Erem stops stretching and begins walking towards David. Uncertain of their intentions, David begins to sweat, and a sudden rumbling tremor stops Erem mid-step. Meanwhile . . . Maya stands in a ballroom that's been half-heartedly redressed for a competetive science fair. Maya receives 1st place for building a machine that can perfectly proportion ketchup. Dismayed by the lack of challenge, being stuck with the device (she doesn't even use ketchup), and being no closer to reviving her Dragonfly Scholarship; she makes her leave. Exiting the building, the double doors shift and slam shut behind her just as the windows all shatter into millions of shards, rattled by a sudden rumbling tremor. In the crossroads of Halcyon City central, a circular wall of dust and debris flies up from sudden impact. The crowds move into wild panic as the teens leap into action. Erem rushes forward to confront the impact's source, while Vessel, Hyperlight, and Beast emerge from the alleys and byways, suited up and ready for action; Painkiller coming in tow. Emerging out of the dust, a hulking woman with red hair stands bound in a mask and shackles that cover her mouth and hands. She slams her foot, creating reverberating bursts from the road that send Hyperlight flying as BUTLER informs her that the initial impact's sheer size and power appears to have resulted from an orbital fall. Vessel and The Beast engage, trading blows with the restrained goliath. Erem shouts to "knock her down, " and Vessel leaps into action, tackling her onto the ruined asphalt. Erem tries to use the sunsword to heat the asphalt, and trap the wild attacker within, but fails. Vessel continues to hold the woman down as she lays into him with her kicks, and strikes the ground, sending out shockwaves that rattle his body. Vessel's power's backslash from the overflow of kineic energy, and for the second time that day, Halcyon City square explodes sending the heroes flying over a road reduced to rubble.